I always stand up too soon and discover the water is deeper than I thought, lose momentum and have to start swimming again. Anyone have any good tips?
Swim until your hand touches the bottom, then stand up.
Swim until you basically can’t swim any further (maybe 2 feet deep). It will vary from person to person, but this is a pretty solid rule of thumb.
From the time when you can stand until you can’t swim, it is very slow to just wade/run through the water. It is much faster to keep swimming.
Thanks for the reply - I thought about that but thought it was too late/ already too shallow once the hand hit.
Thanks for the reply - I thought about that but thought it was too late/ already too shallow once the hand hit.
I would say you should actually keep swimming at that point. Adjust your stroke, and keep swimming for a while longer. Just because your hand touches doesn’t mean it is faster to run than to swim.
“Just because your hand touches doesn’t mean it is faster to run than to swim.”
You obviously haven’t seen some of us swim vs. run. 
“Just because your hand touches doesn’t mean it is faster to run than to swim.”
You obviously haven’t seen some of us swim vs. run.
Ha…yeah, I guess that is true!
Want to swim in an shallow as you can; usually until your hands can touch the bottom. Otherwise you are going to stuggle to get your knees moving once you start running. Honestly, I dont think you can swim in too far…
It also depends on how tall you are. If you’re a short guy like me swim untill your hands hit several times.
Also, with beaches in large bodies of water, sometimes the water gets shallow and then deep again. I will normally dolphin through that. It’s funny when some people pull their wetsuits down just in time to see the water get waist deep again. 
jaretj
I remember reading in either Going Long or The Perfect Distance that you should wait until the second time your hand hits the ground before you stand. This works great for me.
“Swim until your hand touches the bottom, then stand up.” X2
It’s the fastest way in. Always amazed at the folks walking in the waist deep water.
Try waiting even longer, and see if that is a little faster. My arms can touch the bottom at right around 3 feet deep, but there is no way I would want to stand up that early. I CAN still swim in 2 feet of water, and this seems to be the perfect depth.
Knee height is desirable, if it is deeper, you need to dolphin or keep swimming. Running in water or dolphining take way more energy than just swimming though.
If its an ocean swim, the hand touching rule may need adjustment to compensate for the surging waters as waves break and recede. If I can stand and hold myself against receding water, I’ll do just that, then leap and swim again with the next wave pushing me in to shore. No hard and fast rules, you have to adapt to the conditions.
“It’s funny when some people…”
HA. i’ve seen that on more than one occasion at Lake Michigan venues (at least at races that let us swim) when the first of multiple sandbars pop up.
for the OP: i typically go with a few brushes of the fingers on the bottom. it also helps to have a little situational awareness of what folks up ahead are doing and where.
Totally agree. I never stand up until it fees like my face is about six inches from teh sand. My larger point to the OP was that he should keep swimming at least until he starts to touch – definitely not any sooner.
I just want to concur with everything Flanagan said.
At most races I see most people start swimming to late and stop swimming to early.
I don’t know why everyone is so adamant about swimming in to 2’ deep water. It’s definitely faster to porpoise than swim. I scout the exit and know ahead of time where the water comes up to my solar plexis. My goal is to stand there and begin to porpoise until the depth is mid thigh where I run out.
Same with entry. Most of the time I can only porpoise once, but some entries/exits are shallow for a long time and I can porpoise a few times.
I don’t know why everyone is so adamant about swimming in to 2’ deep water. It’s definitely faster to porpoise than swim. I scout the exit and know ahead of time where the water comes up to my solar plexis. My goal is to stand there and begin to porpoise until the depth is mid thigh where I run out.
Same with entry. Most of the time I can only porpoise once, but some entries/exits are shallow for a long time and I can porpoise a few times.
Dolphining is not faster than swimming at the depth you mention, unless you are a slow swimmer. It takes significantly more energy. There have been many times when I’ve swum past people who are dolphin diving.
By “solar plexis”, I assume you meant solar plexus–aka stomach height for water. This is way, way, way too soon to start dolphining.
This comes from years of experience in open water swimming and lifeguarding.
During the pre-race announcements at a race I did last year that had a long shallow portion, someone asked if dolphin-diving was allowed. The race director quite sternly said, “this is a swim race, dolphin-diving is not swimming. It is not allowed.”
Thought that was kind of weird. Most people ignored the comment.
I don’t know why everyone is so adamant about swimming in to 2’ deep water. It’s definitely faster to porpoise than swim. I scout the exit and know ahead of time where the water comes up to my solar plexis. My goal is to stand there and begin to porpoise until the depth is mid thigh where I run out.
Same with entry. Most of the time I can only porpoise once, but some entries/exits are shallow for a long time and I can porpoise a few times.
Dolphining is not faster than swimming at the depth you mention, unless you are a slow swimmer. It takes significantly more energy. There have been many times when I’ve swum past people who are dolphin diving.
By “solar plexis”, I assume you meant solar plexus–aka stomach height for water. This is way, way, way too soon to start dolphining.
This comes from years of experience in open water swimming and lifeguarding.
I trust you know what you are talking about. Yes, I’m a slow swimmer and it’s much faster for me. However, I need to point out that at an Xterra regional race last year the dominant swimmer lost his advantage by swimming through a shallow area while the other competitors porpoised. So even at that level of swimmer, it was faster.